So after some drinks at the party the other couple we were with told us about a boat at the lake we could get into cheap, I like these kind of deals, so we proceeded to discuss the location and we got in the car the next morning and headed to the lake. The boat had been sitting for about 8 years with little to no one cleaning up after her. The exterior of the hull and the structural components were in place as we moved into the interior. at some point the water had been so high inside her that the teak flooring had rotted out, there was crap every where and I looked over the systems and discussed our options with my wife. It was extreamly cold that day in 2009.

Photos of our first Day

More photos of the next week after we took ownership:thumbup:

We started by having to pay to get the boat out of the slip she was in and moved her to the hard to start removing all the items inside and taking everything off of the boat.

You can see in these photos of the rotten teak and holly flooring, it was a true shame having to rip it out, at some point this was a beautiful yacht.

More phots of the interior and removing the teak floor. My wife was busy cleaning out the interior as I worked on the exterior removing all the rotted ruunning rigging and taking notes of the items removed as we took hardware home every week to clean, oil or throw out and replace.

Here you can see the structural grid system in the boat. The good about this design is its what you call Clasic Plastic, fiberglass construction. So you can really just gutt what you need and have a good base to resore from. My wife cleaned the next photos. The Diesel smell was really strong, and the plumbing smelled like Sh1t. I give her credit as I worked on the exterior in a nice summers breeze as she cleaned up the crap, no pun intended.

So here you can see that it is starting to get cleaned up inside. As my wife cleaned up the crap, I worked on the exterior and then it was a tag team effort to getting the floor back in. At this time I was also buying stuff off of ebay and trying to budget ourselves to meet the end goal, a good boat we could sail and be happy with the labor involved with a beer budget.

Photos of cleaning up

Here are some of the older electronics that were installed in the boat that didnt work, but I found replacment parts on ebay and I wanted to keep the boat vintage to its age. We also started looking at interior fabrics and dropped off the cushions to be remade, but that didnt work out with the lady photoed as she was in trouble with Jonny Law and we got a call to come pick our stuff back up.

After that I called a place in Florida and here is the pattern we went for. Out cushions are taking about a year to turn around. We are not in a hurry and are getting the Winter rate as she works with us. Here you can see the start of the teak and Holly Flooring going down and the finished product. I finished it with 8 coats of epoxy and then a semi gloss poly. This way I can just sand down the poly and refinish with out ever touching the wood again. The floor is also coated on all sides so there should be no rotting.

Here is a Photo of my wife, and my son with his new dog. The dog is now 2-1/2 yrs old so the photo was Christamas of 2010- One year of hard work. I have started on removing electronics and going thru the diesel and plumbing. I have a ton more photos of the last 2 years and I will upload and continue the story tomorrow night. We first sailed her in Fall of 2011. This was my main project untill I purchased the BMW E38 and now the E65.

I will see you all tomorrow night:thumbup:

Wow man im speechless just wow. U and ur wife make a good team)). I cant imagine how much time and effort u and ur wife put in. She looks amazing now. Show us some pics of her in the water. Chris ur the man.

Passion all the way respect thanks for sharing:thumbup:

very nice....the flooring/inside is beautiful...i bet everytime you go inside there is nothing like that fresh smell of wood.... btw is that a white boxer mix or american bulldog?

Fabulous work. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing this. I really enjoyed the read and am looking forward to the next chapter. :thumbup:

You have a beautiful family. I'm sure your son loves the boat.

CCCP, you want to see my wife in the water or my boat, lol. My dog is a boxer/pit mix. He broke the glass out of the door last week so he is not on my "nice" list. Thanks for the comments and yes, my son loves to sail. He has been on a sailboat ever since he was 6 months old.

One day I will fill you all in on my father. He is the reason that I sail.

More to come later.

Hahaha chris noooooo azz i wanna see the boat in the water.

That looks like a LOT of work and you did a very nice job on it. My brother has a 34' Hunter at a dock in the Charleston Harbor we go out on every once in a while. He's had to do a lot of restoration on it as well but never repaired anything that extensive. I love, love, love teak but hate, hate, hate trying to maintain it...

In honor of this thread, I have changed my avatar to a sailing theme (Olympics 6m elliott)

Great work Chris, Man I would love to cruise the waves on the open ocean in a yacht. Forget the 7.

Hahaha meee tooo. But dont u disrespect 7 infront of the company. Hahaha))

Rookie2008 said:

Great work Chris, Man I would love to cruise the waves on the open ocean in a yacht. Forget the 7.

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